And this is just the beginning: Butter tastes different when depending on the breed of the cow, the region, the season, and, obviously, the animal (or plant) from which it comes (goats! sheep! soy beans! yaks?).
If the butter is bitter or has a peculiar flavor that's unpleasant, something is probably wrong. Streptococcus bacteria in the butter produces a malty or sour taste. Things like medications and pesticides can make butter taste like chemicals.
THE TAKEAWAY
Bottom line: Homemade organic butter isn't much cheaper than store-bought butter, and we couldn't discern a difference in taste. The real fun is adding flavors to butter, but this works better with store-bought butter because it has a longer shelf life.
Then strain out the buttermilk and knead the butterfat in ice cold water to remove every last drop of milk. Some sources, but not all, suggest ripening the cream first by letting it sit at room temperature for 12 hours to achieve better butter flavor.
When cream is agitated, either by whipping, shaking, or blending, the solids and liquid will eventually separate, and you've made butter and buttermilk respectively. This means that butter is only as good as the cream it's made from, and it's worth it to source the best cream you can find.
Soon the you will feel a solid bouncing around in the jar with a sloshing liquid. That solid is the homemade butter. Stop shaking once you get to this point. If you keep shaking the liquid will be re-introduced into the butter and ruin it.
When butter becomes rancid, the enzyme lipase breaks it down into glycerol and fatty acids. Hydrolytic rancidity results in the formation of free fatty acids and soaps (salts of free fatty acids) and is caused by either the reaction of lipid and water in the presence of a catalyst or by the action of lipase enzymes.
If you are worried about wasting your fresh buttermilk, you can use it to make ice cream, biscuits and casseroles, among many other tasty dishes. While homemade butter is cheaper than store bought, buttermilk from the store is cheaper than homemade. What a surprise!
If its too warm, the butter will be very soft and will be more difficult to rinse and knead later on. If too cold, the fat will have difficulty consolidating. You can start with fresh sweet cream or culture your own cream for more flavor.
Why care about when to stop churning? If churning ceases too soon, much fat is lost to the buttermilk. If over-churned, the butter will contain too much buttermilk and be very difficult to wash clean.
High-quality butter has higher milk fat content, which gives you richer, flakier and more flavourful baked goods that tend to have better shape and structure. A lower-quality butter has more water content, which will produce, for example, a crisper, flatter cookie with more crunch.
It is often because the butter hasn't been stored correctly – warm temperatures, light and moisture can all cause butter to deteriorate quickly and become rancid. If the darker yellow layer is quite thin and the aroma isn't too sour, then you can just cut away the outside layer before using.
Heavy cream, whipping cream, or heavy whipping cream are all suitable choices for making homemade butter. Heavy cream, with the highest percentage of butterfat, will yield the most butter; lower-fat whipping cream will yield less.
Should You Leave Butter on the Counter? According to the USDA, butter is safe at room temperature. But if it's left out for several days at room temperature, it can turn rancid causing off flavors. The USDA does not recommend leaving it out more than one to two days.
Your butter needs to be “room temperature”, or around 65ºF. If it is too cold, it won't blend with the sugar evenly and will be almost impossible to beat it into a smooth consistency; if it is too hot, the butter won't be able to hold the air pockets that you are trying to beat into it.
Not spending long enough creaming butter
One of the biggest mistakes you can make with butter is not creaming it with the sugar for long enough. Generally, this will take about two to three minutes if you're using a mixer (and you should — the process is exhausting if you try to do it by hand).
It is possible to overmix the butter and sugar. If you overmix, however, the butter will separate out of the mixture and it will be grainy and soupy, so be sure to stop once your butter becomes light and fluffy.
The best option would be fresh, raw cream from pastured Jersey cows. Milk from Jersey cows has the highest fat content, which is why they are primarily dairy cattle. In addition, the fat in their milk has larger globules in it which makes it perfect for churning butter.
Not only does it save money, but it guarantees me an Australian owned product. While the cream sold in our supermarkets is Australian, the butter often isn't. I check the fridge sections for reduced cream whenever I head to the supermarket, and this week I hit the jackpot.
1 litre of whipping cream with 35% fat produces about 350 – 400 grams butter, the rest is buttermilk.
Use heavy cream, not heavy whipping cream. Heavy cream has a slightly higher fat content that is needed to make the butter solidify better. You must use raw milk to make butter from milk. Regular milk will not work as there is no cream to separate from the milk.
Culturing is a process most commonly used in France, which means that the cream from the milk is left to ferment before it is churned. By introducing bacteria to the cream, the sugars are converted to lactic acid, giving it a sourer and 'buttery' taste. This culturing is what makes French butter so irresistible.
Unsalted butter gives you complete control of the overall flavor of your recipe. This is especially important in certain baked goods where the pure, sweet cream flavor of butter is key (butter cookies or pound cakes). As it pertains to cooking, unsalted butter lets the real, natural flavor of your foods come through.
Overall, European-style butters are favored for their rich taste — a direct result of the higher butterfat content. More butterfat also means a softer texture, faster melt, and often, a saturated yellow hue.